End of an Era

1995 - The year I started highschool, and also the year Ford brought out the EF Falcon. Ford was finally realising that Australian culture is one that celebrates a V8 Muscle Car heritage. For so many years Ford Australia had ignored the muscle car trends and had let Holden win out on every front with their SS Commodores and the new HSV franchise.

In 93 and 94 Ford had brought back the V8 in Falcons... and the ED model had the first ever XR8, be it an uninspired generic Falcon just with a V8 and different headlight pattern on the front.

However in 95 with the EF Ford brought out the XR8 and XR6 models, with a distinctive front look and tuned suspension and other upgrades...

By 97, I was 15, totally into cars, with a huge family heritage of Ford supporters and Ford were finally getting it right with the facelift EL Falcon. The XR8 and 6 in that model looked fantastic, the development was done in partnership with motorsports partner Tickford. Tickford suped up both the V8 and straight 6 engines (the V8 a 'blue' engine and the 6 a 'red'), with a sunken quad headlight design and tuned and lowered suspension the XR series really became the pinnacle of Ford's Falcon line up.


Right from when I saw the EL's I loved them. In 98 when I was getting my learners and in 99 when I had my license, the car I wanted was an EL XR8 (obviously couldn't afford it, but it was my 'dream car'). Even with the release of the AU Falcon at the end of 98, the EL was still my favourite, in many cases it still is to this day.

It was the car I loved, the one I dreamt of owning, so when I returned from Africa in 2004 and needed a new car I thought about Subaru Imprezas, but what I really wanted was a manual Falcon. I found a heap on carsales.com.au and set out to take a few for a test drive.

The very first one I went to look at was a 1997 EL Falcon XR6, and from the first moment I saw it I fell in love with it, even more so when the dealer started it up and it's 2.5 inch exhaust made one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard! Without looking at another car I bought it.


It wasn't the XR8 I'd dreamt of, but in so many ways it was better - the custom exhaust on it (which I later added a sportier muffler) makes it simply the best sounding 6cyl Falcon I've ever heard. I'd decided against a V8, so this XR6 was definitely the next best thing.

Today marks the end of my 3 year love affair with that car... I bought a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer last Friday (the one in all the TV adds, Newer... Better... Safer... Greener and all that...) and I pick it up this afternoon, trading in my beloved XR6 at the same time.

The new car is my decision to try and cut my week-by-week travel costs, fuel, rego, maintenance and general running will be much cheaper with the Lancer. The Falcon's now 10 years old, done 161 000k's and getting to the point where it will need some work and money poured into it.

However saying goodbye to this car is like saying goodbye to an old friend - actually this is starting to feel like a eulogy isn't it!

I'm looking forward to having a new car, but at the moment (5 hours before pick up) I'm more grieving the Falcon than I am excited about the Lancer.

Sounds a bit sad and dorky doesn't it??? Well I don't care, I sure love that car!